In a message dated 4/3/05 6:31:52 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
glennmorton@entouch.net writes:
Is he, Zoroaster or is Jesus the one?
Influence of the Persian cults
"After their defeat of the Sacae in Armenia, we are tolds, the Persians
founded the walled city of Zela. There a temple of Anaitis and of the gods who
share her altar - Omanus and Anadatus - was established; in it the annual festival
The Sacaea, was celebrated down to the Christian era. The city was small,
inhabited mostly by temple serfs, but from it Persian religion worked its
westward way into Cappadocia, then south to Cilicia, where the pirates took over the
cult of Mithra, and centuries later the sun-god dominated Roman armies and
became a rival to the oriental Christ.
During these centuries also Zoroastrian thought was to make its most
important contributions to a world religion. Semitic belief in existence after death
was illuminated by true immortality. Satan the Accuser became the Devil.
Egyptian apocalype imported into Jerusalem was transformed into genuine eschatology,
the doctrine of the last things, resurrection and the last judgment. Through
the Jews, Zoroastrianism entered Christian theology."
AT Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire, U of Chicago, p. 479

Zoroaster is real, but there is no reference to his sacrificing his life
anywhere. However, the Vedas on which Zoroaster's thought is based, do have a
figure called Agni who brings the self sacrifice to man, so the concept of self
sacrifice is older than Christianity and did probably come to it from the Vedas
via Zoroaster and then Judaism.